Today I was continuing with the task of writing up my recipe file, a collection I have been adding to my whole life it seems, ever since the moussaka and rollmops episode when I was about seven, but we won't go there. ​I really don't need more recipes but find it just as hard to discard these old friends as it is to toss out old photographs...writing the ones I want to keep into my electronic file at least allows me to discard the pages torn from magazines, recipes emailed from friends, hand written jottings, notes copied in shorthand after an interesting idea given during a conversation...you name it they are all there and all bring back memories of people, times and events past...

Anyhow, tucked into a pocket in my old paste book that I keep to contain the ones I need to sort through, the last bastion of this foodie hurdle I have created for myself, I came across several pasta recipes given to me by some old Italian friends, many years ago. One of these was instructions for making pici, which I have never made, or even eaten, for that matter.The handwritten recipe was a bit hard to decipher, but is in effect a very simple one, pantry ingredients only. I decided to make them for supper this evening and see how they turned out.The recipe suggestion was to serve the pici with a wild mushroom sauce, but Chris helped me make a fresh tomato sauce, as we have plenty at the moment, while I got on with mixing up the dough and all the rolling out.

I was worried I was making these a tad thick, but I love thick noodles and these worked out well and cooked up very nicely.

The recipe called for 3 cups of flour and this quantity made enough for four good serves.I kept about a quarter back, lying them for support on a large Decor box lid, then popped them into the freezer. In the morning I will wrap these up and keep them frozen along with the leftover tomato sauce until someone wants them for lunch, just to see how well these freeze. If they respond well it would be easier if they were made ahead of time...as all the standing while I rolled out the noodles did not agree with me very much at all. This would be a perfect recipe to make if one could borrow a Kindergarten class for an hour, or had a couple of Italian grandmothers one could call in... ​Having said that, they were really very easy to make, the dough handled very well and I will very definitely be making these again. I am sure almost any favourite pasta sauce would be good with these slippery, dense chewy lovelies...

Chris' simple tomato sauce flavoured with fresh thyme, simmered to richness and finished with a dab of butter just when serving...

Supper!

This is certainly a robust, unsophisticated, homey sort of pasta, but then I always think pasta is, however it is prepared. But that might just be me...I have a marked propensity to end any pasta meal with sauce splatters somewhere about my person! We ate this meal in a bowl with just a fork. Maybe next time I will try a flatter, wider pasta bowl and add a knife to the equation...